Abstract
The period from the Whiskey Rebellion to the end of the Civil War was an era in which the new country with a new government and constitution was undergoing a period of consolidation. The Civil War was, in many ways, the final act for this consolidation. This period, often referred to as the Jacksonian era, represented increasing public inputs in the political process, and it witnessed a variety of violent actions and a greater reliance on terrorism by groups in the United States than did the previous colonial and revolutionary periods. Confrontations between settlers and Indians continued, but there were now instances of the overt reliance on terrorism to accomplish the goals of the settlers. Racist violence increased with the appearance of campaigns of attempted ethnic cleansing. The Mormons were persecuted for their unusual religious beliefs and for attempts to isolate themselves from other groups. Antimigrant and anti-Catholic feeling were prevalent and peaked in this period with the formation of the Know-Nothing Party (or American Party). Overt reliance on terrorism became most obvious in many respects in the battles between proslavery and free soil groups in Kansas in the 1850s. In this period, much of the violence and terrorism involved actions by mobs that were mobilized to deal with or deter groups that were seen as threatening to the country or society.
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Notes
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© 2007 Brenda J. Lutz and James M. Lutz
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Lutz, B.J., Lutz, J.M. (2007). Before the Civil War: Mob Violence in Jacksonian America. In: Terrorism in America. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230608931_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230608931_3
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